A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a previous judgment in a patent infringement case that ordered Medtronic to pay millions of dollars to a spine surgeon, according to Bloomberg Law.
Three things to know:
1. In 2014, spine surgeon Mark Barry, MD, sued Medtronic claiming multiple patent infringements on his patent titled: "System and Method for Aligning Vertebrae in the Ameliorating of Aberrant Spinal Column Deviation Conditions." Medtronic argued against Dr. Barry's allegations.
2. The jury found in favor of Dr. Barry, who was awarded $15.1 million for one patent and $2.6 million for the other; the final judgment requires Medtronic to pay $17.7 million for two patent infringements as well as a 20 percent enhancement on both patents' damages and about $2.4 million in prejudgment interest.
3. Medtronic challenged the decision, but on Jan. 24, the Appeals Court affirmed the jury's original decision and upheld the award of $23 million to Dr. Barry.
Dr. Barry is now retired from practice in the U.S. and serves as the director of Children's Orthopedics Education for Developing Nations, an organization he developed under the Non-Governmental Organization Global Help Initiative that aims to provide in-country fellowship-level training to orthopedic surgeons in developing countries.